15 Essential Social Media Facts and Figures For B2B Marketing

Social media has been the plaything for Business to Consumer (B2C) Marketers and they have always seemed to have grabbed the headlines because their products are funkier and sexier than a B2B service or product. In fact B2B social media marketing has been put in the ‘boring’ category for too long.

I have noticed latelythough that the B2B social media marketers seem to be coming out of the closet, only this morning a friend of mine and fellow blogger Mark Schaefer sent me a link to a post at his blog called ‘Business Grow.com‘ where he provides a fascinating case study about a company ShipServ who is a leading e-marketplace in the maritime industry providing a portfolio of software, services and hosted applications designed to enable efficient global shipping. This type of industry you would think is not appropriate for social media marketing but for some impressive stats pop over to Marks blog to read the story.

Also just last week this very cool YouTube Video was kindly sent to me byErnest Agency and I think they had a secret evil plan that if I liked it enough I would spread the word .. and you know what?.. it succeeded…it is very good, in fact it is even excellent and well worth taking 3 minutes and 48 seconds to view. I have also put some of the statistics into a text format for those of you who prefer to read than watch.

Some Facts and Figures To Consider For B2B Social Media Marketing

81 % of B2B companies have accounts on social media sites compared to 67% of B2C

75% of B2B brands participate in Twitter versus 49% of B2C

54% of Chief Information Officers ban the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter at the workplace

93% of all business buyers believe all companies should be on social media platforms

85% of of those buyers should use social media to engage and interact with them

9 out of 10 buyers say that when they are ready to buy, they will come looking for you

Eight out of Ten IT decision makers said word of mouth is the most important source when making buying decisions

37% of B2B buyers asked questions on social media sites when looking for suggestions

93% of B2B buyers use a search engine such as Google to begin the buying process

74% of C- Level executives say that the internet is a very valuable source of information

Six out of Ten C-Suite executives conduct more than six online searches a day

Managers in information technology are the top ranked users of the Web for information gathering

49% of B2B marketers do not measure return on investment

90% of marketing deliverables not used by sales

Sales generate 53% of their own leads and the marketing department provides only 24%

So how are you using social media marketing for your B2B go to market strategy?

Apologies I think the source on our blog needs correcting. From the anecdotes we’ve heard and our own experiences of working with a number of large IT services firms this statistic unfortunately rings all too true. It’s why we always try to ensure that any sales enablement tools (from playbooks to rich media videos) are scoped and tested with a sample of the people who will actually use them. That way we can go some way to avoiding the other problem Jeff E highlights – that sales people spend 30 hours a month searching for and creating their own sales materials. Hope this helps.

http://www.theorganicview.com OrganicGuru

B2B in some industries is tough because it is all about word of mouth, for the most part. I think this article does a great job providing valuable information to show just how drastic B2B marketing is changing. It is something definitely worth thinking about, especially if your business does sell wholesale, in addition to B2C.

http://www.acceleratedbr.com/blog Kendra Ramirez

Love the data. Sure would be nice if you had a share this button on your blog so I can share with others easily. =) Don’t make me cut and paste. LOL

I can’t believe that 81% of B2B companies have a twitter account. This figure is extraordinarily high. Maybe it is true for the USA, but the UK is definitely nowhere near that figure. I actually doubt that 80% of B2B companies in the UK even have a website let alone a twitter account.

Jake Coventry

Sorry I read it wrong.. change twitter to social media… I still think it is too high.

http://B2design.wordpress.com Brian Blake

Great post… Very cool video.

I always question statistics because I believe they can be twisted to represent whatever one wants. However, I whole-heartedly agree with the general thrust. The B2B market is about to explode in the social media world.

I think the video glazed over two incredibly important parts, though. I tell people that “Twitter and Facebook are the ‘candy’ of social media… The real meat is in blogging and forums.”

It is in these arenas that the B2B channel is best addressed. A buyer from a paint manufacturer who is looking to purchase a forklift is not going to search Twitter to find out who is the best forklife manufacturer. However, that buyer might do a Google search and find the “Forklift Forum”. From there, this buyer can learn the pros and cons of various models… And even build a relationship with a local distributor who participates on this forum.

You get a chance can you expand on ” 90% of marketing deliverables not used by sales” and give some examples.

Thanks for others comments its helps to clear the doubt on marketing field

http://twitter.com/jwatton jwatton

Thanks for the name check on ShipServ. Hopefully sharing our story encourages other “deeply B2B” businesses like us. With 65% of our target audience believing that social media is a “distracting waste of time”, we could’ve easily canned any social media efforts. So my message to everyone: is stick with it – it’s worth it.

John
CMO, ShipServ
@jwatton

http://www.rainbowzebra.co.uk Rainbow Zebra

Great stats there!

Makes you wonder what reasons companies give for NOT having a blog or a social media presence!

http://twitter.com/bbwheaven bbw-heaven

Fascinating stats. Amazing that 49% of B2B marketers do not measure ROI.

It would be helpful if you could cite your sources on the stats. I like reference points to determine the credibility of the statistic quoted. It all looks wonderful from my vantage point, but when speaking with executive staff, they like to know where values came from to solidify any thoughts they have. Thanks for sharing this with everyone.

http://www.hadeninteractive.com Rebecca Haden

Absolutely — it’s much less convincing without sources or the chance to click through and see the methodology, sample size, and raw data.

Social media is not just about lead generation, of course. While the potential buyers are using search and social research products and services before making purchasing decisions, can marketers and public relations workers use these same tools for research buyers wants and needs. And competition. And even social media itself.

I’m one of those who usually reads rather than watches videos and not coincidentally one of those who asked for sources. So here’s a tip for the rest of us: the video’s YouTube info includes this link: http://ht.ly/1WG3j Sources are linked at that article.